[Peakoil] Cold fusion a reality?

[W & C Steensby]

Are we on the Brink of an Energy Revolution? Andrea Rossi to Build 1MW Power Plant

Andrea Rossi and partner Professor Sergio Focardi recently announced to the world that they have created a cold fusion device which produces more energy than it consumes. As you can imagine this has drawn a great deal of interest from the scientific community as well as a huge number of skeptics.

One way to prove your sceptics wrong is to actually do what you say you are going to do. Once the deed is done in a public and undeniable way, there is nothing left for the sceptics to say.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Are-we-on-the-Brink-of-an-Energy-Revolution-Andrea-Rossi-to-Build-1MW-Power-Plant.html

This almost seems to good to be true. You know the old adage: if it seems to good to be true, ...

If Rossi & Focardi really are able to sustain cold fusion and build economical power plants, this will be utterly revolutionary. If successful, then depending on how fast cold fusion power plants can be scaled up and rolled out, the end is in sight for fossil-fuelled power plants of all sorts. Oil and coal could be kept for better uses, and natural and coal seam gas would be uncompetitively expensive to produce or use. Shades of "Mr Fusion" from the Back to the Future movie trilogy!

On the other hand, investment in oil and coal production could dry up, leaving no financial incentives to explore or drill or dig for more. Whether this is a good outcome needs analysis.